Patient information

Patient feedback and complaints handling policy

Our clinicians strongly believe in improving patient experience and will welcome any feedback on the services provided. If there is something you wish to share with us, please inform one of our staff who will handle it appropriately.

Ayrshire Orthodontics acknowledges that from time to time complaints will occur and recognises that the act of complaining demonstrates the importance of the matter to complainant. As such, this provides us with the opportunity to identify shortcomings, improve services and increase patient satisfaction. We take complaints very seriously and strive to resolve any issues that have arisen swiftly and to a mutual satisfaction. To ensure this is as transparent as possible we have documented our complaints handling policy below.

Ayrshire Orthodontics complaints policy

We accept complaints by ways of telephone, email or in writing.

The practices’ complaints manager is Ms Kay Howat and all complaints should be addressed to her.

All complaints will be acknowledged in a reasonable time frame (normally 3 working days) by which point you will contacted by our complaints manager. This is to confirm your original complaint and collect as much information as possible to process our own investigation.

The internal investigation will normally take 10 working days. If the investigation time cannot be met, the complainant will be informed and the process extended for a further 10 days. A complaint may best be resolved through face-to-face meetings being arranged with members of staff and early consideration should be given to this approach. Equally, it may be decided, on a case-by-case basis, that other action would be helpful. All meetings and discussions will be recorded as well as any action to be taken.

Investigations will be impartial and approached objectively in a fair and consistent manner. If a member of staff is the subject of a complaint, they must be provided with a full account of the reason for the investigation, given the opportunity to talk to the investigating officer and kept informed of the progress.

At the conclusion of the internal investigation, you will receive a written full report with the relevant findings and the changes, if any, we have implemented as a result of your complaint.

Comprehensive reports will be kept in a secure file and if any recommendations merit action we will use them to improve our services.